Cityscapes

There are perks to working near to the Tate Modern. It's currently featuring a wonderful exhibition called Global Cities, exploring the changing faces of ten dynamic cities (Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo) through five ‘thematic lenses’ – speed, size, density, diversity and form – and through the subjective and personal interpretation of 20 leading international artists and architects. An installation built out of scaffolding and showing video artwork and photography takes up most of the enormous turbine hall.

A great short film featured on the website reflects the place cities have in a changing world: more diverse and connected than ever ; over half the world’s population now live in cities, one billion of them (1 in 3) in slums; cities are growing faster than ever – upwards as well as outwards, with 95% of future urban growth due to come from Africa and Asia.